The internet changes everything: Music

The music industry has always been at the forefront of culture, at least from the perspective of a college student. Even in our lifetimes, we have seen bands start as local acts, and slowly build until they garner national, and sometimes even international exposure. Now, bands like Radiohead have gained a lot of press through their gimmicks, namely releasing an album online for a negotiable price. Now, people may point to examples like this as to how the internet is 'changing everything', but I'd argue that, at the most, these marketing gimmicks are reactionary, only examples of how the mainstream is adapting, rather than examples of change itself. Even a band like Radiohead, which has released several mainstream albums, is too old to be fully affected by the changes that have been created in the past couple years.

The main difference in the music industry now is time. The time it takes for band to hit it big has gone down dramatically. It is no longer surprising to see a band gain press coverage from mp3s posted on their Myspace page, whereas it used to be nearly impossible to gain media attention without some sort of record contract. This has a very interesting consequence, at least from my perspective: the 'indie' music industry is dying. From my observation, most indie labels support artists that are either second-tier in terms of their touring and record sales, or beginners who will eventually make it big. This is soon to be no more, and it has little to do with media consolidation. The big item here is cost. Recording equipment costs money, and it used to be that you needed a label, even a small label, to defray some of the costs of recoridng and distributing your music. Now, this is no longer the case, Recording equipment is much cheaper (software like ACID or Reason or Garage Band costs hundred of dollars, compared to thousands for a decent multitrack recorder), and distribution is, at least at the first level, essentially free. Many people see Myspace as a black mark on the internet, but the one good thing it has done is democratize the process of distributing music. Relatively unknown bands post their mp3s next to big acts, who also have Myspace pages. It's a great place for finding music, my doing so prevented only by the fact that joining would require me to have a Myspace page.

Now that the costs of making and distributing music have gone down, the need for small labels diminishes as well. Either you can make the music in your garage, and send it out on the internet, or you're popular enough to be paid by a major label for distributing your music through their conventional channels.

The interesting thing through all this is the backdrop set on the music industry by mp3 downloading, and the subsequent reaction by the RIAA. As more and more artists sign on to the unconventional modes of distribution, and the profit channel of conventional album sales is eroded by piracy, how long will it take before someone catches on, and the industry format is changed completely?

It's at least something to think about.